Family of 5- how much per day for food?

[erbeaman]

Family of 5 (me, DH, DS 15, DS 12, DD). Four days in the parks. Full kitchen at WBC to make food. We will eat all breakfasts at the condo. Pack lunch for the kids on park days, so just snacks and QS lunch for DH and I. Dinner at the condo most nights, maybe 3 nights out for the whole family- probably a pizza delivery night, Bonnet Creek poolside bar meal night, and one meal at Disney Springs. How much money do you think we will need??

 

[RangerPooh]

This is what our family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids; 12, 10, 7, 6) budgets:

Breakfast in room. Cereal, Eggo waffles, oatmeal.

Lunch in parks- QS. We budget $15/entree. We strategically plan meals and know that some entrees are large and can be split between two people.

• Example) Pecos Bills- Fajita platter. We order two and an extra side of tortillas. ~$15 + $2 = $17 each. We drink water. After tax we're looking at $40 for lunch.
• Example) Flame Tree BBQ- Ribs, Chicken and Pulled Pork Sampler. We usually order 2 of this. ~$20 each. After tax we're looking at $50 for lunch.

Snacks- granola bars, fruit snacks, or we purchase a refillable popcorn bucket and pay $1.50 a refill. Although we splurge on Mickey's Premium bars 1-2x per trip.

Dinner varies. This is when we often plan our TS meals. But it could be QS, pizza delivery, or cooked in room. It just depends on the day.

In all, we try to stay within a $150 per day budget. Some days we come in around $100 by being conservative and thinking about our choices. Other days we're closer to $200 because we had a TS meal. I think the best thing to do is to look at menus and pricing to determine what you want to eat and then create a budget from there. We generally anticipate that an entree with beverage will be about $20. This helps us to set our budget.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Family of 5 (me, DH, DS 15, DS 12, DD). Four days in the parks. Full kitchen at WBC to make food. We will eat all breakfasts at the condo. Pack lunch for the kids on park days, so just snacks and QS lunch for DH and I. Dinner at the condo most nights, maybe 3 nights out for the whole family- probably a pizza delivery night, Bonnet Creek poolside bar meal night, and one meal at Disney Springs. How much money do you think we will need??

Groceries $125
QS (8 total - $15/meal) $120
Snacks ($5 each - 5/day or 20 for 4 days) $100
Pizza $30 (1/2 as much if you go pick up Dominos)
Bonnet Creek Meal ($10/person + tax/tip) $60
Disney Springs (CS or TS??) - let's do a range of $75-$200, depending what type of meal
Total Cost $510-$635, so around $500-$600 for the time...probably closer to $500 unless you really love snacks...

 

[LovesTimone]

I would suggest doing your planning homework so to speak.. Really dig into the CS portion size and menu offerings to see who will share what, saying you can share a meal, but who is willing share and on what items... you might want to think ahead.

You can share at table service's some will divide in the kitchen some will bring you a extra plate... but please tip as if everyone order a entrée.. Tutto ( Epcot) has huge portions, my 2 DD's could easily share and adult spaghetti when they were teens. With the bread and olives, there is more than enough. Teppan Edo, my DD's would share a entrée, we would get extra chicken when we would order for them.

You can do appetizer for dinner, DH and I do this all the time. Lots of interesting options.

Freeze your water bottles to take into the parks, and refill as you go.

One of my best tips, is look around at portion size while waiting and ask about the portion size, you might be surprised at what you can share.

 

[Kingdome8]

When we get meal plan obviously we go nuts and order everything. Of course we throw away a lot too. Last trip with no plan whenever we did QS, me and my wife split a meal and the 3 kids. 13,10,5 would get a meal and we would end up eating rest of theirs anyway. A little cheaper. Some times 5,10 year split as well. Maybe cause it was hot but we didn't seem to eat as much there. Of course kids wanted ice cream and drinks. That's where we spent the most throughout week.

 

[Marionnette]

Family of 5 (me, DH, DS 15, DS 12, DD). Four days in the parks. Full kitchen at WBC to make food. We will eat all breakfasts at the condo. Pack lunch for the kids on park days, so just snacks and QS lunch for DH and I. Dinner at the condo most nights, maybe 3 nights out for the whole family- probably a pizza delivery night, Bonnet Creek poolside bar meal night, and one meal at Disney Springs. How much money do you think we will need??

Hard to tell. Teenage boys are always hungry. When my boys were between 14-20, there was never enough food in the house no matter how often I went grocery shopping. What do you spend on groceries for the same number of days? Take that number and double it because chances are good that you will be doing more convenience foods and snacks than you use at home. This would just be for groceries.

Then budget $15 apiece for CS meals for you and your husband on the days that you are in the parks. Count on it costing $20 apiece for dining out (with beverages and tip). Pizza delivery would be in the range of $15-$20 per pie with delivery charges and tip. You could shave a few dollars off of that price if you order and pick up.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I figure $33/day for 1-2 meals and a snack. We encourage water with meals and have other drinks in the room. Paying nearly $4 for a drink seems goofy.
A 6 day trip results in a $200 gift card to use for food. If you stay under budget, more goodies from Disney Springs. We also get Giordano's pizza the first night, and sometimes the last night.
We either do a grocery delivery or run to Walmart for breakfast items, lunch meat, and drinks. Sometimes I'll do a Mickey Waffle for breakfast and eat lunch in the room.

 

[pigletto]

I can only speak to our budget. We are going late August. It will be Dh and I, Dd20, Ds13, and DD20's BF. So essentially 5 adult eaters. We are offsite in a condo close by. I am budgeting $150 a day. We will eat a quick breakfast before leaving for rope drop. Most days we will take a mid day break to avoid the heat. We will eat back at the condo for lunch.

The $150 will cover either one counter service meal onsite in the evening or a restaurant offsite before we go back to the park , and a snack in either scenario. I'll be flexible but with having access to a full kitchen, this amount has worked well for us in the past.

 

[HeatherC]

Family of five here too. We usually stay at Bonnet Creek too. I would suggest $150-200 a day. May not come close to that, but we find that little things add up and when we get into the parks and someone sees a Mickey Bar or Dole Whip, etc., we usually don't say no because it is vacation.